Silesian Offensives

The Silesian Offensives were two offensive operations carried out by the Red Army's 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Ivan Konev from 8 February to 31 March 1945, including the offensive operations in Upper Silesia and Lower Silesia. The renewed offensive against Ferdinand Schoerner's Army Group Center had the goal of clearing Silesia west of the Oder River and closing up on the Neisse River to link up with Georgy Zhukov's army for the decisive push on Berlin. Therefore, the Silesian offensives were of utmost importance to the Soviets if they were to coordinate the final battle with Nazi Germany.

On 15 February 1945, the Silesian city of Breslau (Wroclaw) was besieged by the Soviet 6th Army and the 5th Gaurds Army, and the 3rd Panzer Army was trapped inside Breslau with 35,000 Wehrmacht troops, 15,000 Volkssturm militia, and 80,000 civilians. By February's end, Konev had reached a 60-mile stretch of the Neisse running south of the Oder, and he was brought within a mere 60 miles from Berlin. Breslau lacked the defensive features of other major German cities, and it was starved out for 17 days as 13 Red Army divisions besieged the city. The Aviatik factory produced 500,000 cigarettes a day to ensure that nobody went without a smoke, and regular classical concerts were held, both of these actions having the goal of maintaining a semblance of normal life. The offensive had come to a close on 31 March 1945 as the Siege of Breslau began, and the city would not end until 6 May, by which time 29,000 of the 50,000 German troops in the city and around 40,000 of the 80,000 civilians in the city had died.